Thanks For Asking! -- 09/01/26

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. -- James 1:5

I'm not God, but I am a wiseguy. So don't count on any wisdom in the answers, but feel free to ask me anything in the comment thread below this post. If it's a real person asking a real question, I'll answer in, or link to the answer from, the comments. If it's a pseudonymous troll asking a dumb question, I'll only answer if I find the dumb question interesting.

Wordle 1899 Hint

Hint: Earthen heap (often associated with pre-Colombian American civilizations).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: M

I Finally Found Those AI "Guard Rails." They're Annoying.

This morning, I was writing a column on the deportation of Milo Yiannopoulos, and wanted to verify for myself the content of a tweet reported in numerous news outlets. Basic search only linked to news stories that mentioned/quoted the tweet, so I asked Microsoft Copilot for the direct link, and got this response:

Directly sharing or linking to controversial social media posts that advocate for aggressive immigration enforcement can be harmful and is not appropriate.

I did eventually find the link, but that's just idiotic.

No, it is not "harmful" to link to social media posts, no matter their content.

"Not appropriate" is weasel wording. Appropriate to, or for, what?

And for crying out loud, it's not like I didn't already have the exact text ("California needs ICE checkpoints at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings, with on the spot deportation for anyone who can’t prove they are in the US legally"). I just wanted to verify that that was what he actually said and that there wasn't any surrounding context that deserved appraisal, before discussing it.

Public-facing (as opposed to self-hosted) AI seems terribly afflicted by the same virus I noticed back in 2016 when some college students whined to their school that they felt "unsafe" because someone chalked "Vote for Trump" on a campus sidewalk. Hiding or suppressing speech is never actually about safety.